The Speakers

Filippo Bontadini is Assistant Professor in Applied Economics at the department of Business and Management at Luiss University. He is also Research Fellow at the Luiss Institute for European Analysis and Policy. He also works as a researcher on the EUKLEMS-INTAN Prod and the Global INTAN-Invest database projects. He has also served as Economic Advisor on the Joint Task Force of the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance and the OECD for Multilateral Policy Support. Before joining LUISS University, he has been a Research Fellow at the OFCE-Sciences Po and has obtained his PhD at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, where he is now an Associate Fellow.

Masud Cader serves as the Lead of Country Analytics for the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. In this position, Masud is responsible for applying analytics for cross‐country initiatives such as Belt & Road, Outbound Investment, and South‐South, as well as client engagement and upstream impact. Country Analytics creates novel quantitative insights linking development strategy with private-sector client implementation. Previously Masud headed IFC’s Portfolio Intelligence function, and was responsible for a series of internal reports including IFC Equity Horizons linking megatrends with investment platforms; Sustainable Investing providing pathways from IFC’s ESG principles and client practices to financial outcomes. Masud participated in over $1 billion of committed deals and led equity research on large transactions and sponsors for over $2 billion in IFC projects.

Bernardo Caldarola is an applied economist, working as Economic Analyst at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Seville. Previously, he worked as researcher at the United Nations University - UNU MERIT in Maastricht (Netherlands), and as postdoctoral researcher at the Enrico Fermi Research Center in Rome.  He received a PhD in Science and Technology Policy from the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex (Brighton, UK). His research examines transformation of economic structures, aiming to understand the impact of technology on the process of structural change with a particular interest in its inclusiveness and sustainability. His research bridges several academic fields, such as development economics, economic geography and economic complexity. He has also collaborated with several international organizations and research centers, including the European Commission, the former UK Department for International Development, the Institute of Development Studies and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Clovis Freire is the Head (a.i.) of the Commodities Branch of the Division on International Trade and Commodities of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He leads the technical support to the UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals (CETM) on the areas of CETM value addition, economic diversification, trade and investment. 

He is an Economist specialized in economic diversification and strategies for building productive capacities in developing countries. His work supports the structural transformation and sustainable development of commodity-dependent developing countries. He has over 21 years of work experience in the United Nations in programmes related to economic diversification, commodity dependence, least developed countries, and technology and innovation for development. 

He holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), Brazil, a Master’s degree in Computer Sciences from the University de Brasília (UnB), an MBA in Strategic Management of Information Systems from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Brazil, and a PhD in Economics from the Maastricht University.

Nanditha Mathew is a professorial fellow at UNU-CRIS. Nanditha's research interests focus broadly on the microeconomics of innovation and development, in detail, on firm capabilities, firm performance and industrial policy.

Dario Mazzilli is a researcher at Enrico Fermi research center. He studied physics in Rome and got his Ph.D. on statistical physics applied to complex systems.

His current work focuses mostly on applications and modeling of network theory, studied at the Indiana University, to the economic complexity framework.

Aurelio Patelli is a researcher at CREF in the group of Economic Complexity where his interest includes research on complex network methodologies, innovation and sustainable studies and economics of science. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Università di Firenze and had a postdoctoral position in Paris at the CEA on modelling collective behaviours. Later, he moved to Rome starting his work on economic complexity topics.

Luciano Pietronero, former President of the Enrico Fermi Research Center, is Full Professor at the Physics Department of La Sapienza University of Rome, formerly at the University of Groningen. Professor Pietronero has a broad international experience in academic and industrial institutions. Author of more than 400 scientific papers, he was the coordinator of a national PNR project “Crisis Lab” funded by the Italian Government and of several international research projects. Chairman of the international conference on Statistical Physics STATPHYS 23 held in 2007 in Genoa (Italy). Expert of statistical physics, many body theories, and one of the world's leading expert of complex systems and economic complexity. In 2008 he was the recipient of the Enrico Fermi Prize, the highest award of the Italian Physical Society. He  founded and directed (2010-2016) the CNR Institute of Complex Systems (ISC). From 2016, he is Senior Advisor for the World Bank Group. 

Emanuele Pugliese is a Researcher at UNU-MERIT, where he leads the Computational Innovation Lab. His research explores Structural Change, Development, and Complexity, employing advanced computational methods such as machine learning, network science, and dynamical systems.

Prior to joining UNU-MERIT, Emanuele worked at the intersection of policy and academia. On the policy side, he worked for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where he established and led the Complex Project, and for the World Bank Group. In academia, he was affiliated with the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, the Institute for Complex Systems, and the University of Bath as a visiting researcher.

Angelica Sbardella is a researcher at the Enrico Fermi Research Centre in Rome and research associate at SOAS University of London School of Finance and Management. Her research focuses on industrial competitiveness and development, labour markets, technological innovation, economic inequality, and the sustainable transition; data-driven and policy-oriented in its nature, it aims at building a bridge between economic complexity and more traditional approaches in economics. She previously was a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and research fellow at the Institute of Complex Systems-CNR; has been consultant at the European Commission, World Bank Group, ILO, EBRD, and UNU-MERIT, using the economic complexity framework to address issues in regional development, skill creation and industrial innovation.

Andrea Tacchella is Senior Reseacher at CREF, where he works at the intersection of Economic Complexity, machine learning and innovation studies. Previously he was post-doc researcher at the Institute of Complex Systems at CNR, where he contributed to the birth and development of the Economic Complexity framework, laying out its empirical and theorethical foundations. In the same years he has been a consultant for numeorus firms and international organizations (Azimut Capital Management, Royal Dutch Shell, Lastminute.com), and he has collaborated with the World Bank in the implementation of the EFC framework for policy. Between 2019 and 2022, Andrea has worked at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Seville, to promote the use of EFC methods among the economic analysis tools of the Commission. 

Fabiana Visentin is Assistant Professor at UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University, and her research interests focus on the microeconomics of innovation and the economics of science area. In these topics, her contributions have appeared in the American Sociological Review, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Research Policy, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Science and Public Policy, and PlosOne. Before moving to the Netherlands, Fabiana worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Chair of Economics and Management of Innovation at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland, and at the Goizueta Business School, Atlanta, USA.

Andrea Zaccaria is a researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems-CNR in Rome. He received his Ph.D. in Physics at the "Sapienza" University of Rome, where he applied concepts and methods borrowed from statistical physics and the physics of complex systems to the study of financial markets. As a member of the research and development group of SoSE Spa, one of the main Italian fiscal agencies, he developed a machine learning algorithm to classify taxpayers and detect tax evasion. In his current role with ISC, Andrea is exploring the use of complex networks methodologies, algorithmic tools, and machine learning in the field of economics. This activity led Andrea to the appointment as a consultant at public and private organizations, including the International Finance Corporation-World Bank Group.